When you work for a big corp and someone asks you to have a conversation like this where there is no upside for you, one of the best things you can do is copy the lawyers in and nope out of there as soon as you can.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but still fun to see that they’re apparently using an ESP32 as management processor (without antenna, probably just RMII directly to the switch ASIC)
Edit: there’s a RTL8201 10/100 PHY to the left of the switch asic, that connects the ESP to one of the switch ports.
We used the 1GbE version in an outdoor setting to easily connect multiple sensors in a port within a research project. Good reliability and being able to extend and "split" the ethernet connection without additional power supplies was very convenient.
We did not integrate them into a UniFi ecosystem, just used the PoE and dumb-switch functionality.
With the upcoming Realtek RTL8127 based products I would rather jump to 10G straight. Sadly there isn't much competition in that switch segment, I couldn't find reasonable products besides maybe Mikrotik CRS304-4XG-IN.
It is managed by ESP32, so it is going to be something very minimalistic on level of FreeRTOS instead of big Linux distro.
Which means that if you know how to program ESP32 and setup the RTL8372 switch you can have massive flexibility with it. If you don't, then you are stuck with whatever Ubiquiti firmware is being run by this switch.
From my experience, these cheapo Unifi switches from Flex series are bad.
They heavily drop frames under even moderate loads (well under 2gbit). If you turn on vlan tagging, they won't hanlde more than 0.1gbit.
They work well if you need to connect a bunch of slow iot devices. Don't dare connecting them to a desktop.
The Ultra series of utility switches is rock solid though.
That’s not been my experience. My flex has been rock solid and it’s outside.
Ubiquiti copies in a lawyer for what reason now? Reviewing a bought product. That is absolutely BS behavior.
When you work for a big corp and someone asks you to have a conversation like this where there is no upside for you, one of the best things you can do is copy the lawyers in and nope out of there as soon as you can.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but still fun to see that they’re apparently using an ESP32 as management processor (without antenna, probably just RMII directly to the switch ASIC)
Edit: there’s a RTL8201 10/100 PHY to the left of the switch asic, that connects the ESP to one of the switch ports.
We used the 1GbE version in an outdoor setting to easily connect multiple sensors in a port within a research project. Good reliability and being able to extend and "split" the ethernet connection without additional power supplies was very convenient.
We did not integrate them into a UniFi ecosystem, just used the PoE and dumb-switch functionality.
Similarly I've had a 1GbE one installed in my loft for the last 3 years with 4×G5 Bullets plugged into it.
No problems, no fuss, mounting options are great - would recommend that approach to anyone installing cameras.
With the upcoming Realtek RTL8127 based products I would rather jump to 10G straight. Sadly there isn't much competition in that switch segment, I couldn't find reasonable products besides maybe Mikrotik CRS304-4XG-IN.
I have Zyxel XGS1250-12 which at least has a few 10G ports.
Can't find RAM and CPU specs for RTL8372N. Would be interesting to flash OpenWRT onto it.
It is managed by ESP32, so it is going to be something very minimalistic on level of FreeRTOS instead of big Linux distro.
Which means that if you know how to program ESP32 and setup the RTL8372 switch you can have massive flexibility with it. If you don't, then you are stuck with whatever Ubiquiti firmware is being run by this switch.
It's just an ASIC switch, not a SoC.
Is there anything comparable in the TP-Link Omada ecosystem?